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Facebook is rapidly expanding its offerings in its Marketplace section, pulling oft-searched items like used cars into its Craigslist competitor. Now the company is bringing housing rentals from Apartment List and Zumper into the fold, letting US users browse and search "hundreds of thousands" or rental units in Marketplace.

The will-Zuckerberg-run, won't-Zuckerberg-run-for-President speculation has driven most of the news about the Facebook cofounder this year. But he, along with his wife Priscilla Chan, have been quietly funding two particular progressive agendas with their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) on top of its wide-spanning philanthropy. The CZI has quietly given a total of $45 million to groups addressing two specific causes: ending mass incarceration and improving affordable housing.

A new report from Financial Times confirms last month's rumors that Airbnb will launch a new apartment complex in Florida in partnership with a real estate firm. The rental company plans to pitch the location as prime opportunity for seasonal tenants who will be able to rent their units out for up to 180 days a year.

It's been four years since Facebook got the ok to build a new Frank Gehry-designed headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and two years since the company moved into the space. Now the company is looking to expand again. Unlike Apple's isolated spaceship campus, however, Facebook's new "Willow Campus" seems to take a cue from Google in offering more public access. The new Menlo Park campus is designed to connect to other people, providing housing, retail and transportation to both the company and its neighbors. The official filing of the plan is set to occur later this month.

Facebook's practice of letting advertisers exclude racial groups from targeted ads has caught the eye of US lawmakers. "We are writing to express our deep concerns with reports that Facebook's 'Ethnic Affinities' advertising customization feature allows for advertisers to exclude specific racial and ethnic groups when placing housing advertisements," the Congressional Black Caucus said in a letter to Facebook. "This is in direct violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968."

For Airbnb, it's not enough to try to shape city policies on home sharing -- it wants to shape the cities themselves. The service tellsFastCo Design that it has created an innovation lab, Samara, whose aims include rethinking architecture and urban planning. If Airbnb can spark new life in small towns, the reasoning goes, it can create "new types of commerce" and attract more rentals to areas that might be on the decline. Samara's initial effort is a communal housing project for the small Japanese town of Yoshino (due to open soon after its October arrival), but there's talk of similar work for other small towns as well as new product designs, software and "economic models."

The influx of engineers, employees and entrepreneurs into Silicon Valley has caused area housing prices to skyrocket, pushing out locals and earning the industry some deserved ill-will. Now the nascent Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has turned its attention to the problem, spending the last few weeks meeting with experts. But the endeavor is still heavily in the research phase, so don't expect it to find a solution to the complex housing crisis soon.

The design team at WASP (World's Advanced Saving Project) will unveil what is being billed as the world's largest 3D printer on Friday in Rieti, Italy. Dubbed the "Big Delta," this enormous device stands roughly 40 feet tall with a 20 foot diameter. But despite its size, the Big Delta is extremely efficient and uses only 100 watts of power. Its oversized design allows the Big Delta to quickly and easily print low-cost disaster-relief housing. What's more, it can do so using locally-sourced materials (read: dirt and mud) which also acts to minimize construction costs. The WASP team also foresees employing this printer for non-disaster-related home building. According to a company release, the Big Delta help accommodate the estimated 4 billion people worldwide that will lack adequate housing by 2030.

If NASA is going to put humans on Mars and other distant worlds, it's going to need a place for explorers to stay -- and it wants your help building those extraterrestrial homes. The agency has launched the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, a competition to develop the best artificial housing for space exploration. The first phase of the challenge will award a $50,000 prize based on pure architectural merits, while a second will hand out two $1.1 million prizes for those who figure out how to manufacture individual components and whole shelters from "indigenous materials," such as rocky soil. NASA hopes that the winning ideas will make it possible to settle alien terrain without bringing mountains of Earth-made construction supplies. That would not only let crews pack light, but fix their own abodes if something goes wrong millions of miles from Earth.

Airbnb has joined Netflix and other American companies doing business in Cuba. The move marks the most significant US business expansion to the Caribbean island since the Obama administration began normalizing relations with the nation, according to the Associated Press. The private rental outfit has high hopes for the region, saying "we believe that Cuba could become one of Airbnb's biggest markets in Latin America." Over 1,000 listings are now up on the site, with 40 percent of those in Havana and the rest in nearby tourist spots on the Southern coast.

Where would we be without digital archives? Not playing old MS-DOS games and browsing defunct GeoCities Labyrinth fan sites while we should be working, that's where. And while some institutions are busying themselves preserving such things as classic literature, one is embarking on a far more important task: building a fully searchable image archive of all the UK's miserable concrete housing blocks. The "Tower Blocks - Our Blocks!" project is the brainchild of social and architectural historians at the Edinburgh College of Art, because how else would you manage to snag over £50,000 in Heritage Lottery funding to scan pics of ugly buildings if it didn't have something to do with art? That money will be put towards digitizing 3,500 old photos of high-rises, some of which have long been demolished, and "support local outreach initiatives" to get residents to tell of their experiences within these concrete melting pots.

In a surprising move, CEO John Smedley just announced on Reddit that Sony Online Entertainment is leaving behind its Sony roots and becoming Daybreak Game Company after being acquired by the investment firm Columbus Nova. This change allows the company to publish online games on multiple gaming platforms, including the XBox. Smedley also assured players via Twitter that all of the games in the company's portfolio are staying and will continue to be a part of the new company. Here's the full announcement plastered on the official forums of each of the company's games:

Dear Players, Partners and Friends,

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

Black Desert is getting a new Samurai class in its next Korean update, according to MMO Culture. Little is known of the archetype at this point, though the site speculates that we may see some "Samurai-type skills like Yasuo's [from] League of Legends."

Have you recently come home to TERA? OK, maybe you never left. Either way, En Masse is betting you'll get excited about the Skycastle guild housing system that's heading your way on February 24th.

The castles float above major cities and are available "to the top-ranking guilds on each server via two new ongoing four-week guild competitions that track guild points earned from dungeons, battlegrounds, and guild-vs.-guild battles," according to an En Masse press blurb.

The patch will also include a new dungeon set aboard the Sky Cruiser Endeavor as well as a hard-mode version of Bathysmal Rise.

Peer into the ball, strange bear thing with a skull cowboy hat, and tell us what future TERA holds. Or better yet, we could just read the brand-new producer's letter with all sorts of spoilers about the coming year! But the ball, that's cool too.

The team is gearing up for an ambitious 2015, if this letter is any indication. Plans for February include sky castles for guilds, the Sky Cruiser Endeavor dungeon, and a 5v5 version of Champions' Skyring. Past that, TERA will host more frequent small events, a community costume design contest, the opening of the Dreadspire, and a brand new "gun-toting" class.

Finally, the team promises to be better about talking to its playerbase. "As for our communication of the process -- yes, it has to get better, and it'll start with me," Producer Treeshark said.

Black Desert fans already knew that a Tamer class was heading into the game; today that class is available to play on the Korean servers under the new name of Beast Master. As the name would suggest, the Beast Master class utilizes summoned magical beasts during battle and has a close-to mid-range fighting style; the skills available will be dependent on whether or not the player is fighting alongside her pet or is mounted during the battle. If you want a quick peek at how the Beast Master plays, check out the class combat trailer below.

This module will be a significant one when it comes early this year. Elemental Evil will add a new class to the game, the Paladin, and increase the level cap from 60 to 70. The increased level cap means more skills and quests for all eight classes.

Cryptic also announced that future updates in 2015 for Neverwinter will include the player guild housing Strongholds system, the Xbox One launch, and the arrival of popular D&D characters.

Is it an MMO? Is it a MOBA? Or is it something else entirely? Those are the questions swirling around the news that Runewakeris working on a third title, following Dragon's Prophet and Runes of Magic. Whatever the case may be, Runewaker will be revealing the game next week to the public. After that, this new title will be playable at the Taipei Game Show.

The studio did release a couple of pieces of concept art that show two fantasy forces squaring off against each other. There might be a touch of sci-fi in this as well, as the art shows giant robots (golems?) and neat-looking rifles.

Ready to lay siege to your enemies and take control of whatever strikes your fancy (as long as it's a castle) in Black Desert? The developers are getting ready to let players do just that. Sieges will be enabled on a single server on January 17th for a live test, and as long as nothing breaks horrendously, all servers will have the mechanics enabled on January 24th.

Each guild will be able to build two towers and one command center as part of the lead-in to the warfare; the last guild standing after a siege will take control of the castle and be the defenders during the next assault. Still no word has been offered on an exact date for a North American release, for those of you watching this with hungry eyes. You'll have to find out how the siege tests go from the sidelines.

Two of RIFT's more popular systems, dimensions and minions, will be getting some major dev love when Patch 3.1 arrives.

In a new dev diary that went out yesterday, the team lays out a list of improvements for these systems. Dimensions will be getting a free-fly camera to allow for even more building precision, permissions options for visitors, ban lists, and -- prepare for this to blow your mind -- a bigger +1 button.

As for minions, players will have even more options in how they deploy these hard-working followers. The team is adding minion stamina potions, the ability to shuffle adventures, and the option to link to minions in the chat window.

While we wait for word on Black Desert's arrival in the West, the game is ticking along in its Korean open beta and continuing to add more features. One of these is the addition of the Tamer class, which will be coming to the beta this month.

Not much is known about the Tamer, other than what a short video reveals: that she is a little goofy and likes to hit things with sticks. Steparu reports that other classes are on the way, including the possible Blader and Ninja professions. You can watch the Tamer in action after the break!

MMO Culture reports that player housing is "one of the main features in MapleStory 2." Curiously, though, publisher Nexon is limiting available land and making ownership an expensive proposition. If you can't afford to own, you'll still be able to rent high-rise flats and decorate them as you would a regular house.

The website also says that apartments will have public social areas, which are viewable via a trio of beta screenshots.

You remember Revival, right? You know, the game funding its development by selling in-game houses? That one. The developers haven't been quiet over the holiday season, with several recent blog posts detailing the high-end concepts behind several of the game's key mechanics -- for example, dying, which doesn't simply leave you to run back to your corpse but forces you to traverse the spirit realm, fighting off malicious spirits and seeking the Mortality Gate to drag yourself back from the dead.

Of course, you can stay alive longer by making use of combat mechanics like the shield wall to defend yourself from dying. You can also use your continued "being alive" status to take advantage of the decoration kits available for housing, which allow you to convert existing rooms with certain fixtures to more functional equivalents. It's all interesting stuff and worth considering if you're sorely tempted to drop a bunch of money on the promise of virtual real estate.

I've been a fascinated outside observer in regard to World of Warcraft's recent expansion and its much-touted garrison feature. I have no doubt that garrisons have filled a lot of purposes and gone all-out on functionality. It's certainly been a powerful carrot for Blizzard to wave in front of players.

But what I've been wondering is whether garrisons are so functional that they forgot to be personal. In other words, do garrisons feel like "home" in-game even if you can't decorate and customize them the way that you can in other MMO housing systems? Has your character finally set down roots or does this feel like just another mission hub?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
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If you were hoping for an exploit-free experience when Korean sandbox import Black Desert heads west, you may still get it. But you may not, if Steparu's recent experience in the game's K-OBT is any indication.

Problems include a buy-back dupe, mob kills that gave abnormal amounts of experience, and "something with the shop." Steparu also reports that developer Pearl Abyss and publisher Daum have permabanned serious offenders and deleted ill-gotten gains from "light abusers."